[The Nation (Nairobi)] Rich and poor nations were on Friday close to agreeing on a roadmap for UN climate negotiations this year, but only after long-running feuds flared over who would do the most to tackle global warming.The four days of talks had an apparently modest main goal of sorting out an agenda for the rest of the year's negotiations, which would lay the foundations for agreements at an annual UN climate summit in South Africa in November.
But delegates were forced into intense and long debates as poor countries demanded a greater focus on actions rich countries must take, particularly over cutting the greenhouse gas emissions that are blamed for global warming.
"There have been several days of honest, very straight forward talks among countries on what is the task ahead," UN climate chief Christiana Figueres told news hounds in the early evening before a final workplan had been agreed upon.
"It's a very important discussion, (so) it is not surprising that parties are still in that heated discussion."Many delegates came to Bangkok with a sense of cautious optimism after rich and poor nations made a series of compromises to achieve breakthroughs at the last annual summit in the Mexican resort city of Cancun in December.
But the Cancun agreements focused mainly on the easiest steps to be taken, and the harder issues immediately flared when delegates began meeting on Tuesday.
"This year will be more difficult... the power struggle is back," La Belle France's ambassador for climate change negotiations, Serge Lepeltier, told AFP.The talks began on Tuesday with poor nations demanding that rich ones agree to a second round of legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction commitments.
A Green Climate Fund was established that aims to channel $100 billion annually from rich countries to poor ones to help them cope with climate change by 2020.